Most conventional communications networks today, particularly existing telephone networks, provide a calling party with an audible ringback signal when an intended called network address or station line is idle and a busy signal when the intended called network address or station line is already in use (i.e., the telephone or other device at the called network address is being used). Conventional networks also provide a calling party with an audible dial tone signal when the telephone or other device at the calling station signals the network that they wish to initiate a call or network communication and a line is available. Most conventional communications networks today, particularly existing telephone networks, also provide advanced features, such as call waiting. The call waiting feature allows a station or device already connected to another station or device to temporarily disconnect from a first call and receive a second incoming call, and then switch between the calling parties.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,557,658, 5,428,670, and 5,321,740 to Gregorek et. al, incorporated herein by reference, disclose a system for selectively modifying or replacing at least a portion of a call progress signal, including the conventional aforementioned ringback signal, dial tone, busy signal, and call waiting idle time, with prerecorded announcements and/or audio/video programming. These announcements and/or programming provide more information to a calling party. The replacement announcements and tones can be tailored to a specific calling party and are thus associated with a calling party's unique network address or telephone number.
Custom ringback announcements allow for an additional level of flexibility and personalization of a user's communication network service. To customize the system, a user of a replacement ringback system might wish to deliver, for example, audio/video programming, interactive games, a joke, a personalized message, or an informational message to a calling party to supplement and/or replace the conventional ringback tones played to the calling party. Furthermore, replacement content can be customized for a specific calling party or group of calling parties. The replacement ringback system offers a convenient and simple way to extend a caller's communication experience and takes advantage of a previously unutilized call transmission period.
In addition, replacement ringback tones and announcements offer almost limitless applications in the marketing industry. A caller experiences a rather large amount of unused idle time when waiting for a called party to answer his or her telephone. In addition, a caller may be put on hold for several minutes while the called party answers another inbound call (e.g., a called party may place an initial caller on call-waiting or hold to answer a second inbound call). Since ringback tones can be played to all parties, regardless of the called party's or calling party's own carrier or calling transmission means (i.e., whether the caller is calling from a mobile line or land line, etc.), replacement ringback tones are an ideal medium for advertising. Substantial revenue can be gained by taking advantage of this idle time to deliver advertisements pertaining to consumer goods, products, services, etc. provided by a particular corporation or individual. Further, since communication devices are ubiquitous and universally used, ringback tones have the potential to reach a large, targeted audience very quickly and efficiently. For example, businesses may use replacement ringback tones to deliver company slogans, jingles, and promotions to increase exposure and publicity.
As the adoption of the technology identified in the above-referenced application is emerging, certain drawbacks in the user interface for enabling the functionality of the application are arising. For example, a subscriber is usually required to notify the network provider in advance if the subscriber desires a new ringback replacement association via a Short Message Service (SMS) message, email, or telephone call to the communications network's voice response system or call center. This advance notification, for example, usually contains at least the network address or addresses to be associated with the new ringback content and an identification of the actual replacement ringback content. The network provider then makes the necessary changes to the subscriber's service to associate the appropriate network address or addresses with the desired ringback content. In addition, notification and confirmation by external means are often required to update or change the ringback content for an already-existing ringback association. For example, an exchange of emails may be required to effect the change in service, or a visit to a website may be necessary to set up replacement ringback functionality. This often inconvenient and time-consuming method of updating or adding new ringback content to a user's service discourages subscribers of a ringback replacement service from frequently modifying or adding new ringback replacement associations, thus reducing potential revenue by deterring regular and repeated ringback content purchasing and utilization.
In addition, depending on the setup of the communications network and the handset technology, a replacement ringback announcement can be selected by and played from a user's terminal device (i.e. a user's handset or station) instead of the communications network. In most conventional telephone networks, a network server or network peripheral typically selects and plays ringback content to a caller. However, with the emergence of voice over IP (VoIP), many vendors and hardware manufacturers are adopting Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) or Secure Session Initiation Protocol (SIPS), for example, as the standard for IP-based telephony connectivity. In a SIP, SIPS, or like network, the terminal device is responsible for selecting and playing the replacement ringback content to a calling party. In other networks, including, for example, H.323 and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) networks, ringback replacement announcements may be selected and played by either the terminal device or cached and played by a network server. In addition, the actual replacement ringback announcement can be stored at a variety of locations, including on the terminal device itself, on a server remote to the terminal device operated by the terminal device, on a server remote to the terminal device operated by the network provider, or on a server remote to the terminal device operated by a third party. This plurality of ringback announcement source locations and the decentralization of ringback responsibility to the terminal device prove confusing and difficult to manage for conventional replacement ringback systems.
It would be advantageous if the users of a communications network that supports ringback announcements played from the terminal device could access a simple system for modifying or adding replacement ringback content to the user's service. It would also be beneficial if this system could access a variety of replacement ringback source locations, including local databases and storage, the communications network provider's remote databases, and third-party sources, for the purpose of delivering replacement ringback content from these sources to a calling party. It would also be advantageous if function keys integrated with the user's handset could be used to access a system for associating ringback content with specified network addresses or telephone numbers. Thus a seamless system is needed that is accessed directly from a user's handset or station, for easily modifying or adding ringback associations using a familiar means, such as the menu or prompt systems already integrated with a handset or station.